Species hunting adventures on Okinawa: Part 1.

After a two and half hour flight from Incheon Airport to Naha Airport on the main island of Okinawa we made our way to the car hire centre shuttle. We were both very excited about driving around the island, seeing as much of it as we could in a cool little Japanese Kei car. Handing over my documents to the staff in the car hire office only to be told that I didn’t have the correct International Driving Permit and therefore wouldn’t be able to hire one was a bit of a surprise. I thought it was some kind of mistake at the time and was quite annoyed, but when we got a taxi to our hotel and connected to the WiFi there, I discovered there is indeed more than one kind of International Driving Permit and the one I had was not recognised in Japan.

I was looking forward to driving one of these funky litlle Kei cars. Oh well, public transport, here we come!

We were quite disappointed but tried to stay positive and vowed to make the most of our time on the island, even if we’d have to severely curtail our planned exploration of it. After settling into the room and sorting out our luggage, I quickly emailed Auto Europe to see where I stood on getting any of the two hundred pounds cost of the hire car back. We both agreed it was best to try and forget the whole hire car debacle and decided to head out for a walk to explore the coastal area near our hotel. We were staying close to the southern boundary of Kadena Air Base, the largest and most active U.S. Air Force base in Asia, so going north along the coast we wouldn't have got very far before reaching a chain link fence, so we headed south instead, strolling along the Sunabe Seawall. Overhead, the almost constant noise of jet planes, low flying bombers and helicopters, was a constant reminder that we were near the American air base! Eventually we reached two small piers that are popular fishing spots. I knew about them as I'd seen some fishing videos filmed there on YouTube whilst doing my pre-trip research. I did some fishing there and to my relief there were plenty of fish around. Mostly small species, but I had plenty of small hooks with me.

These two short piers are a popular fishing spot. The water in front of them is deeper than the rest of the coastline, which is an expansive, shallow reef.

The right-hand pier already had a few anglers on it so I fished from the left-hand platform. It didn't take too long to catch my first fish and first new species on Okinawa, a scissortail sergeant. It would be the first new species of many. In fact, almost every species I caught on Okinawa was new to me and I had to do a fair bit of research to eventually identify them all!

I'm not certain that I've identified some of the fish correctly, even after hours of research online when I returned home! I think this drab looking damselfish is a Japanese gregory. If you disagree, please let me know!

Dropping a squid tentacle down deep into the dark areas between the tetrapod blocks to the right of the pier produced a couple of cardinalfish. The one above is a Cook's cardinalfish....

...and this one is a Kupang cardinalfish.

After a while we continued our stroll and I soon spotted lots of incredibly colourful bright blue damselfish in the shallow areas of a lagoon that was almost empty due to the tide being out. They were very small and proved incredibly difficult to catch, not showing any interest at all in my tiny baits. After a while, I did catch this funky little chap that came out from under a rock to snaffle my bait.

This is a crimsontip longfin, also known as a coral devil. It has several other common names in English, but I'll stick to just the two here.

Low tide and hardly any water, but there were still plenty of fish. Just not many interested in nibbling my baited hook!

In the evening, after getting some tasty food in a small Vietnamese restaurant near the two piers, we started heading back to the hotel and were almost all the way back when I realised I didn't have my Costa del Mar sunglasses. I wasn't sure if I'd dropped them at one of the fishing spots or had taken them off in the restaurant and neglected to pick them up when we left. I thought it was the latter and luckily when we walked all the way back the restaurant owner had them. Needless to say that was a relief and I thanked him profusely. Having potentially lost two hundred pounds on the hire car, losing a two hundred pound pair of sunglasses would have been the icing on a pretty costly cake!

The following day we decided to walk north towards the air base where I fished from a stone pier at the right-hand side of Kadena Beach. I did see more of the small, bright blue damselfish in the rocks at close range, but they just weren't interested in anything I put in their vicinity once again!

The fishing was very poor at this spot despite trying plugs, metals and bait tactics.

Slightly frustrated, we then walked inland and caught a local bus further north. After a short ride we'd passed through Kadena air base and we got off. We then took a walk along the southern bank of the Hija River, soon ending up at the ocean and the northern end of the Kadena North Sea Wall, another place where I'd seen local anglers fishing on YouTube. It was a fairly shallow area, but I could see plenty of damselfish, including the little blue fussy ones. I opted to use my tanago setup here and after catching a few Nagasaki damselfish, my pole float was pulled under by my first blue devil of the trip.

It may have been a little cloudy, but believe it or not, I managed to get a bit sunburnt here.

The blue devil or sapphire devil. Tricky to catch, to say the least. Tanago hooks to the rescue!

I believe this is a white bar gregory. Let me know if you think I'm wrong!

This one was a new species to me, the whitetail damsel. Looks more yellow to me, but perhaps that's because it's out of the water?

Whilst fishing away catching a few damselfish, I spotted a small mantis shrimp, making its way along the submerged step in front of the one I was standing on. Lowering a piece of prawn in front of it proved too tempting for the aggressive crustacean, and it was quickly lifted out so that I could have a closer look at it. I've seen a few documentaries about this family of fascinating creatures, so it was cool to see one up close and personal. I handled it very carefully, as its fore limbs pack a bit of a nasty punch.

What a strange looking creature!

They have extremely complex vision and the two small calcified "club" appendages at the front can inflict serious damage. These are used to smash open shellfish and in violent exchanges with other marine life. They are known in certain parts of the world as "Thumb splitters". Needless to say, I exercised caution!

In the afternoon it started raining and whilst Lillian had a nice big umbrella, I stupidly carried on fishing and got a bit of a soaking. When the rain got even heavier we retreated to some cover nearby and Lillian pointed out that, as well as being very wet, I also had a rather red head. After a while the rain let up slightly, so we walked briskly back to where we'd got off the bus and caught one going south. Heading back to the hotel to get out of my wet clothes and run my head under cold water for a while, we both ended up having a nap for a few hours. Later on, we resurfaced and headed out for a tasty Coco Ichibanya japanese curry and a few beers. The curry there is excellent and you can customise it in several ways. I had spice level five. This was a warm-up for our planned final night meal where I was going to go all the way up to level ten, the highest you can order.

The following day we decided to explore further south. When we got past the furthest point we'd ventured to so far, it turned into a bit of an angler's nightmare, with no fishing signs everywhere and the wind blowing onshore causing a fairly rough sea. I ended up finding an unusual fishing spot in the shape of a fairly big drainage canal that ran into the sea on the southern side of American Village. On the plus side, there were plenty of fish milling around, concentrated around rougher, rocky areas on the bottom. I caught a few damselfish before I spotted a small group of five butterflyfish swimming along in formation! I couldn't believe my luck! A size 18 hook was quickly tied on and my baited rig was cast out into their path. When all of the damselfish nearby shot straight over, I thought it would be mission impossible for any of the brightly coloured butterflyfish to get to my bait, but they were very aggressive, and I was amazed when one managed to get there first and was hooked straight away. I quickly swung to hand one of the coolest fish I've ever caught!

There are many members of the butterflyfish family, each with distinctive colourful markings. This one is a threadfin butterflyfish.

After catching a few more damselfish, I spotted some tiny ones that looked different to the other species I'd caught already. They were very small, so I tried fishing a very light rig incorporating a tanago hook reasoning that was how I caught the blue devil. Fishing this close to the bottom and twitching it along seemed to peak their limited interest, but I failed to catch one. My efforts were rewarded however when I caught a funky little goby.

A rather awesome looking pink-speckled shrimp goby.

Before we went for lunch some faster moving fish appeared and cruised up and down the canal a few times. Switching to freelining small chunks of prawn I discovered they were juvenile blue trevally.

It pays to try different presentations.

So, half way into our third day on Okinawa we were having a good time and Lillian was allowing me to do a fair amount of fishing. I’d caught some interesting and colourful fish. We had two full days left and I was keen to try some new spots and hopefully add even more interesting, colourful species to my tally. 

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for Okinawa : Part 2.

Species hunting adventures in South Korea: Seoul, Muuido and Somuuido.

Last month Lillian and I headed to Asia for a three week long adventure. Before the pandemic we enjoyed two three week trips to Japan in 2018 and 2019. This time we’d be spending the majority of our time in South Korea with a short trip to Japan squeezed in. We were very excited to be going back to that part of the world and had four stops planned in our itinerary. Our first was the South Korean capital of Seoul, we'd then fly south for a short stay on the tropical Japanese island of Okinawa before returning to South Korea where we'd catch the train to Busan on the south coast of the mainland. We'd finish the trip on Jeju island, the “Hawaii of South Korea”. Arriving in Seoul in the evening after a full on day of travelling, we dropped our bags off at our hotel, went out to explore the area near our accommodation and found somewhere to get some tasty food.

Many of the streets near our hotel were a hive of neon lit activity.

We found somewhere to eat and tucked into some delicious bimbimbap, pickled and spicy sides and some super fizzy ginger kombucha.

After dinner, we still felt quite good, so we went for a stroll along Cheonggyecheon Stream, a long stretch of water that was restored fairly recently, having been previously covered over by transport infrastructure. I was curious if it held any fish.

A pleasant space to stroll along in the heart of the massive city. The water was crystal clear...

...which made spotting the resident carp very easy.

Rather predictably however, no fishing was permitted in the stream. I did expect this to be the case, so I wasn’t too disappointed. No fishing signs would however become a fairly common theme throughout our holiday. We carried on along the streamside paths before visiting the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a very large modern building in the middle of a larger urban development with a curved futuristic aesthetic.

The DDP looked quite cool after dark.

By this point we'd covered a fair distance and were both pretty tired, so we walked back to our hotel and got some much needed sleep.

The following day we did some sightseeing, visiting some of the palaces near our hotel and their gardens, taking a stoll around Bukchon Hanok village, resting our feet at a cafe where we enjoyed a drink in the company of racoon dogs and in the afternoon we took some silly photos at the Ihwa Mural Village and in an optical illusion museum.

We just happened to be at the main gates of Gyeongbokgung Palace for the rather colourful guard changing ceremony.

It was quite a contrast between the beautiful palace grounds and the sprawling city around them.

This is a racoon dog. Not a racoon. Not a dog. A racoon dog.

Who needs Red Bull when Ihwa Mural Village can give you wings?.

I wish the fishing had been out of this world!

We were having a great time exploring Seoul, but by this point I was keen to try and catch some fish, so the following day we visited a tackle shop to seek advice. I asked a few questions with the aid of Google Translate and the shop owner informed me that fishing on the Han River was possible but only in designated areas. He also told me that most anglers left the city to do their fishing. I found this incredible for a city the size of Seoul! Anyway, armed with a fishing area map for the Han River, we headed north, making a stop at the nearby Lotte Tower to visit the observation deck at the top.

Lotte Tower is currently the tallest building in South Korea and the sixth tallest in the world.

Quite a bit of smog hid the city off in the distance, but the expansive Han River was there in the foreground.

Glass floors in overhanging sections of the observation deck mean it’s pretty difficult not to look down!

Soon back on solid ground, we headed to Jamsil Hangang Park, so I could do some fishing on the bank of the River Han. When we eventually reached it, we were met with dense swarms of horrible little black flies. Walking west we eventually found an area with fewer airborne insects to annoy us and I spotted some mullet cruising around. I set up my rod and a piece of bread was cast out in their vicinity. Much to my amazement, none of the mullet showed any interest in my hookbait or any of the free offerings I also threw in. Admitting defeat after a while, we continued our walk along the river and soon arrived at a spot where a tributary flowed into it. The area was very busy with anglers, so I didn’t try to fish there. Most of them seemed to be carp fishing, and we only saw one small fish being caught. Further west, I did try fishing at a quiet spot beneath the southern intersection of Seongsu Bridge, but nothing showed an interest in anything I tried.

A very popular spot with most anglers targetting carp on fairly heavy tackle from what I could see.

The next day, we caught the cable car up to N Seoul Tower, a communications and observation tower that sits atop Nam Mountain in central Seoul. It was a hazy day, so the views weren’t great, but when we came back down to the base of the tower there were a couple of interesting demonstrations happening that we sat and watched and both quite enjoyed.

N Seoul Tower. Not anywhere near as tall as Lotte Tower, but it is situated in a lovely park.

Traditional Korean musicians were first to give the gathered crowd a very energetic performance.

Next up, martial artists made short work of bamboo poles using a variety of bladed weapons.

The following day, the weather in Seoul was pretty wet, so we caught a Line 1 Metro to Wolmido Island on the coast. Wolmido has a circular monorail which we used to explore a bit and I tried to do some fishing, but the wind was horrendous, and the sea was like chocolate. Any sheltered areas were all out of bounds. All in all it was a bit of a wasted journey really. A bit frustrated, we had a look at our Naver Map pins on our way back to Seoul and decided to cheer ourselves up with a visit to the War Memorial of Korea.

One of the impressive statues outside the War Memorial of Korea.

There were also several military vehicles on display.

We'd done a fair bit of walking over the first few days of our trip, and as it had also been very frustrating on the fishing front, we treated ourselves to a burger washed down with an unusual alcoholic beverage made with tangerines.

That evening, we checked out of our hotel in central Seoul, caught the Airport Railroad Express Train and checked into a hotel close to Incheon Airport. Whilst researching the fishing possibilities for each location on our itinerary, I'd found hardly any information about fishing around Seoul, so I had suspected that the fishing there might be tough. For this reason I'd planned in a day exploring a couple of small islands, Muuido and Somuuido, both located to the south of Incheon Airport, before we flew to Okinawa. In the morning, we caught a local bus over to Muuido, where I did some fishing near the harbour on its southern coast. The fishing sadly was dreadful, so we crossed over the footbridge to nearby Somuuido to try my luck there.

Not one bite! Perhaps Somuuido in front of me would be more productive?

Over on Somuuido the fishing wasn't much better sadly. The bottom was very snaggy and the bites pretty much non exsistant. Eventually I did manage to catch a couple of tiny rockfish though. My first two fish of the trip!

A tiny Korean rockfish. This one is Sebastes koreanus I think.

A slightly bigger, but still tiny, Korean rockfish! Same common name, but I believe this one is Sebastes schlegelii.

Having spent the whole day fishing at a few different spots on the two islands, I was glad to get off the mark and was pleased I’d done so with two new species. I could have fished for longer but after another hour or so with no more bites I packed up, we walked back over the footbridge to Muuido, and we caught the bus back to our hotel for a big bowl of spicy mapo tofu. We were flying to Okinawa the following morning, and I was pretty confident that the fishing there would be much, much better!

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for Okinawa : Part 1. 

A cracking trip.

I headed to the west coast for a few days of species hunting last week. I was joined by my mates Ryan and Ben, and we based ourselves in Oban. After checking in to our accommodation late on Monday afternoon, we hit the road again and headed south. For our first session, we fished into very deep water from a rock mark on the island of Seil. After scrambling around the rocks below some cliffs, we got comfortable in our chosen spot, set up our gear and waited patiently for bites. Fishing at close range into rough ground, one hook paternoster rigs were the order of the day, incorporating a rotten bottom link to our leads. Ryan was first off the mark with a small pollock just as the light began to fade. After dark, I started getting some interest in my fresh blow lug bait and caught some poor cod and a pouting. Changing to a small mackerel and squid cocktail then produced a lesser spotted dogfish.

Ryan and I both caught a few poor cod and pouting.

My lesser spotted dogfish.

It was a reasonable start, but my main target for the evening was a three bearded rockling, a species I'd been trying to catch for years before visiting Ilfracombe in Devon back in 2017 where I finally caught one. I've subsequently been trying to catch one from a Scottish venue, so in fact, it was my main target species for the three day trip! If I failed to get one on the first night, the plan was to return to the mark the following evening. If I didn't get one on the second night, we'd return again on evening three. About two hours into our session however, my rod tip started nodding away and my long wait for a Scottish three bearded rockling was finally over! The pressure off, I could relax and enjoy my fishing for the rest of the trip.

Got you! Finally! Another species added to my Scottish lifetime list.

The last time I visited the mark with my mate Nick, he caught a tadpole fish and as I sat there holding my rod, I was thinking that it would be cool to catch one myself. The next bite I got was quite an aggressive one, my rod tip pulling down firmly. I was delighted when I wound in to discover my wish had been granted!

Only my second ever tadpole fish. Such a weird looking fish. Note the thread like branched rays of its simple pelvic fin. I think the tadpole fish uses these to detect potential meals. The tadpole fish is also known as the lesser forkbeard due to these structures.

By this point Ryan wasn't getting any more bites and Ben had missed a few bites but still hadn't caught anything. I offered to move to a new spot and let them try in the area I'd been catching all my fish from. It remained quiet for a while, but before we called it a night I felt some slow rhythmic pulls and lifted into a fish. It turned out to be a small conger eel.

The perfect size to handle without too much trouble!

It was about 23:00 when we packed up and began to make our way back to the car. We had not got far however when disaster struck. Ben stepped on a rock that he didn't realise was loose, and it suddenly moved. His ankle gave way underneath him and down he went. Luckily he fell onto a soft grassy area which probably prevented him from sustaining any further injuries. He was in a lot of pain though and told us he thought his ankle was broken as he'd heard a crack when he'd gone over on it. I thought we'd have to call the coastguard to come and rescue him, but after resting for a bit he managed to get up and somehow the three of us managed to slowly make it all the way back to the car. Returning to the youth hostel, we helped Ben get his boot off and his ankle was badly swollen. He applied an ice pack, and we all went to bed.

The next day we had a self drive boat booked on Loch Etive through TFC Boats. This meant Ben was able to have a seat and elevate his foot for most of the session. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and there was hardly any wind. The fishing was pretty tough going though. Loch Etive can be like that, I think over the years I've had more slow sessions than action packed ones. We tried various different spots and didn't really enjoy any great success. I did manage to tick off a few more species for my 2023 challenge however, so that was a definite positive.

The first fish of the day was this spurdog. It would be the only spurdog. It took a launce section rapped in squid that I fished hard on the deck, I was hoping to tempt a thornback ray.

Switching to small hooks saw us all catching a few small whiting...

...and a few poor cod too.

Ben and I both caught some small grey gurnard...

...and I caught the only thornback ray of the session, fishing on the bottom with a small strip of mackerel wrapped in squid.

Before we knew it, the time to head back to shore had arrived, after doing so we drove back to Oban to get some food and figure out what we'd do in the evening. We had intended to fish after dark again, but we were all pretty tired and had caught a bit too much sun as well, which didn't help. Ben understandably wanted to rest his ankle and get some ice on it again, so we had some food in the hostel and headed to bed early. I dare say I'd probably have been back out on the rocks again three bearded rockling hunting had I not caught one the previous night!

The following day we decided to drive south to Portavadie to try fishing Loch Fyne there. The drive down was quite pleasant, passing through some lovely scenery. It was the first time I'd visited the area and unfortunately the comfortable harbour spot I thought would be a perfect mark for us to fish from was off limits due to construction work, so we ended up fishing from the rocks a few hundred metres to the south of it. 

Some of the views were impressive, as the road there followed the coast and went up and down the hills.

The spot we ended up on was reasonably comfortable, but sadly the fishing was very poor. We tried three hook flappers with smaller baits and also pulley rigs further out with larger offerings. Ben and Ryan didn't catch anything at all, with the local crabs making short work of all our baits. At least Ben was able to recline, putting his leg up.

Ben got "comfortable" on a flat rock and elevated his ankle.

I struggled as well and only managed two fish, a dab at the start and a lesser spotted dogfish on my final cast of the session. I'm not sure if I'd return to Portavadie again, especially given it's a three hour drive from Edinburgh. Maybe it would fish better in the summer or on a bigger tide. I might give it another go at some point in the future.

My first dab of the year and my eleventh species of the trip.

We left late in the afternoon and got back to Edinburgh by early evening. Ben went home and got freshened up and then went to the hospital to have his ankle checked over. He was seen pretty quickly and had an X-ray done. Turns out he was right, he had broken a bone in his ankle! Fair play to him for fishing through the pain!

Ben fractured the very bottom of his fibula and is now sporting a "moon boot".

Despite Ben's accident and the patchy fishing, we all had a good time and I added eleven species to my 2023 tally, so it was definitely worth heading over to the other side of the country. On a serious note, please be extremely careful if you are out fishing on rock marks! They can be dangerous places to fish! No fish is worth getting yourself badly hurt or worse. Not even a three bearded rockling! Ben had a lucky escape really, his fall could have resulted in a much more serious injury or even worse! Fortunately, his break doesn't require surgery and a few weeks wearing the "moon boot" should hopefully see him ready to hit the rocks again, being a little more careful no doubt.

Tight lines, Scott.

A fresh start.

I visited Magiscroft Coarse Fishery last month with my mate Ryan to open my 2023 freshwater species account. It was a very windy day, but the fishery is located in a valley, so it was nice and sheltered. Maggots fished under a puddle chucker float were the basic tactics for the day and we both caught plenty of fish.

We both caught a some perch...

...lots of roach...

...a few small carp, including this cute little mirror...

...and finally, we also managed to catch a few gudgeon, one of my favourite small freshwater species.

Nothing complicated, it was simply a very laid back, fun day out, staring endlessly at our floats as our feet slowly froze! I'll no doubt be back over the summer to tick off a few more coarse species. Magiscoft also has a few barbel stocked, and as I've never caught one in Scotland before I'll be spending some time targeting them when I do.

Tight lines, Scott.

Going with the flow.

I had a couple of sessions last month down at the artificially warm waters that have been through the reactor cores of Torness Nuclear Power Station before being pumped back out to sea. The sessions couldn't have contrasted more. My main target species were thick lipped and golden grey mullet, but I also tried to catch a bass and a common blenny too whilst there. My first trip was very productive, I landed six golden grey mullet on freelined bread flake and lost a few more that managed to throw the hook.

Another species ticked off. Three down, only one hundred and ninety seven to go!

The second trip didn't produce any fish at all. Which was strange as I thought the conditions were actually much better than when I was there for my first session. The lack of blennies was also a real surprise. Normally there are lots of them around, but I couldn't catch a single one. It's not my favourite place to fish, and I've probably stated this several times already in previous posts, but needs must, so I'll be back to try and tick off a few more of the species mentioned above later in the year.

Tight lines, Scott.